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“I clean 50 toilets a day. I leave at 8 in the morning to scrape off human faeces from those households, I get 2 rotis as my daily wage,” says Phulan.

Phulan, started her work as a manual scavenger after her marriage. She was married into a Dalit family in Mangraul village in Jalaun district of Uttar Pradesh.

Her husband works as a sweeper around the railway tracks and he earns about Rs. 300 a day. Since she is not allowed by her family to go out of the village for the same, she ends up cleaning toilets of upper caste households in the villages.

She goes from house to house scraping off human excreta from dry latrines and collecting it in a cane basket. Once all the houses are covered, she carries the excreta-filled basket on her head to the dumping ground close to the village.

She does not get her wages in cash, as the men would have. Instead, she earns 10-15 kgs of food grains annually for this job. To supplement her income, Ramkali rolls beedis for which she earns Rs 30 a day.

“I can’t afford the basic medicines with what I earn out of cleaning toilets. So I have to do other petty jobs during the rest of the day,” says Ramkali.

“No one wants to sit next to us. We have separate hand pumps to fetch water. Our children are also discriminated against,” says Sindhu who cleans dry toilets in her village.

The women involved in manual scavenging are treated as untouchables. Because of her work, her children also face discrimination at school. They are made to sit outside the classroom and none of the students want to share their lunch with them.

Sindhu’s husband is jobless and an alcoholic. Though she dreams of a better future for her children, she is struggling to support their education.

“I want a better future for my children but manual scavenging is the only livelihood we have,” says Sindhu.

About the campaign - Donate for Dignity

India banned caste-based discrimination in 1955 and has since passed several laws to end manual scavenging with a commitment to modernize sanitation and criminalize those who employ manual scavengers. Yet Dalit communities continue to face threats of violence, eviction, and withholding of wages if they try to give up manual scavenging.

Rooted within the caste system is an additional layer of patriarchy where the most dehumanising jobs fall on women. Within Dalit families, women are the ones who clean the human excreta from dry pit latrines for little to no wages at all.

Oxfam India, along with its partners, has been working to end discrimination in India, especially among women manual scavengers. Your support will help support the fight for dignity and help women manual scavengers live the life they deserve.

Donate now to support a life of dignity for hundreds of women employed as manual scavengers in India.

“A small amount can help women manual scavengers live a dignified life”

Chronic diseases

These women need your help. They have dreams and aspirations to break free from a life of indignity. Your contribution will help give a life of dignity to lakhs of women working as manual scavengers and help end discrimination in India.

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Disclaimer: Please note that the donation products mentioned are to illustrate activities and the change that your donation can make to the lives of women, children and men. Oxfam India, based on the need on the ground, will allocate resources to areas that need funds the most.